Joe Bloggs and the Only Price of Carbon that Matters

The incessant roar from governments and policy makers, international conglomerates, entrepreneurs and business leaders the world over, as they clamour vociferously for a carbon price, is not just deafening, it’s exhausting. Even poor old Joe Bloggs, that much-beloved proverbial man in the street, wants one – if only because he’s rapidly succumbing to climate change fatigue. Aren’t we all?

Regionally, there are already various assumed or adopted prices, or ‘values’ for carbon, of course. Individually, they form the basis of various, independent policies and quasi-carbon-taxing systems, but with no collective agreement on a definitive price for carbon, let alone one that can be universally accepted. The only thing they share is the canker of politically conflicting interests.

This, surely, is what causes Joe Bloggs’ exhausted despair. He may not fully understand or be particularly interested in Cap and Trade, EU ETS, or the US SCC. Equally, most of the political elite inhabiting such rarified atmospheres, might we say wryly, do not understand him either and aren’t interested in his everyday struggles. But Joe’s conscience is pricked and his heart made fearful by lofty talk of the effect of global warming on his children and grandchildren if nothing is done. He senses, too, that a carbon price is somehow key to ‘doing something’.

Small wonder if Joe feels bewildered, disempowered and bereft of all hope to make any kind of contribution to the debate. After all, the arguments are not made accessible to him for consideration and his opinion certainly isn’t invited – in fact, it’s often wilfully shunned by those in power, because they don’t welcome any interference in their closed-shop political fisticuffs. This will never result in a universally acceptable carbon price.

It’s time to remove political argument from the equation and replace it with hard evidence. PAL has done this. PAL has determined a scientifically defendable price for carbon, based on the cost of actual loss and damage attributable to man-made climate change – this is the real price of carbon, and it’s the only price that matters. It fixes a dollar price on CO2: $/tonne CO2, not simply tonnes/CO2.

Shouldn’t this be great news for Joe Bloggs and his compatriots the world over? Hold on a minute though, Joe… you are not the only one being ignored, shunned, kept out of the debate… only last week, the World Bank Group Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition met en masse at the UN to debate the eternal issue of a carbon price agreeable to all. Despite our best efforts and representations to delegates and members, we have been unable to elicit a response of any kind.

PAL has spent the last two years trying to alert these very same world leaders, business magnates and policy makers to our scientifically robust carbon price but – you guessed it – it’s a case of “don’t call us, we’ll call you…”. No matter how hard we have tried to gain an audience with the ‘Powers That Be’, we are more often than not politely ignored.

What does it take to get the attention of this mutually exclusive, inner circle? After all, we have the solution they need – a carbon price that is defendable, based on scientific fact, not political diktat. That very truth should make it universally acceptable to all you dear Joe Bloggses, because it is transparently shown to be fair, objective and realistic. Furthermore, PAL has already configured a comprehensive, future-proof plan for cracking the climate change code for good – in all senses of the phrase. It is achievable, affordable and ready to roll out right now. I’ll tell you more in my next er, Blogg, dear Joe!

However, we need the support of Joe Bloggses across the world to make our small, apparently unwelcome, voices heard above that incessant roar of our political masters. Will you do your bit right now, please, by sharing this blog with other climate weary ‘Joes’ and let’s try to make a difference today? Thank you.

So next time, I’ll explain in more detail how our scientifically determined, politics-free carbon price/tax is not only credible and affordable (yes, affordable!) but above all, fair and future-proof for Joe Bloggses all over our suffering planet.

Bruce Menzies is Chairman and co-founder of PAL. He founded Global Digital Systems Ltd that won the Queen’s Award For Enterprise 2011. Bruce is co-author of six books on geotechnics and geology, one of which won the British Geotechnical Association Prize 2002. He holds doctorates from the Universities of London and Auckland, and is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers.

Carbon Pricing Indices

Predicting The Price of Carbon: How to Crack the Climate Change Code for Good

Predicting the Price of Carbon by Richard H. Clarke demonstrates that the cost of carbon can be scientifically determined and explains how to analyse and isolate the damage attributable to man-made climate change and thus how to put a predictable, fair and effective price on it – past, present and future.